The web of life is a mingled yarn, good and ill together. ~ William Shakespeare

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Time Machine Tuesday

Look! It's a real, live Jenn! With an actual post! With pictures! I'll allow you a moment to recover.

Apologies for my absence - a number of factors have been contributing to my absence, not the least of which is my computer's need to tell me that my hard drive is full (even though I've deleted a number of things), and, as a result, it won't let me upload pictures. However, lucky for you, I found these lurking in my iphoto, just waiting for their moment of glory.

Project: Feather and Fan socks in Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel. Completed in June of last year, they haven't seen too much wear (what with it being summer and all). However, I did wear them a handful of times this winter, and while the yarn is holding up well, the color is not.

Then

Now

They bled like the dickens in the water (and I handwash all of my socks in cold water with Euculan.) And they keep bleeding (I know I should put some vinegar in the water, but I just keep forgetting).

The worst part? I can't get them on my foot. The tencel has ZERO "give" and unless I stretch them on my sock blockers, I can't get them over my heel (and even after the sock blockers it's a struggle. I have to sit down and pull really hard). They also leave a lovely little pattern on my instep, since they fit so tightly.

Lesson learned? Go up a needle size the next time I knit tencel socks. But in all honesty, I probably won't use a yarn like this again. It is lovely, and shiny, but I'm not thinking it's best for socks. I think it would make a lovely shawl.

I try to keep religion and politics off of the blog. But I have to share this story. We're big Obama supporters. And since the campaign is finally here, hubby went down to our local office today and picked up some yard signs and signed up to help out. He's making phone calls to people in our precinct. The list of callers is very specialized through some system I'm sure I don't understand (since we don't register as "democrats" or "republicans" here in Texas). It is comprised of people who are likely Obama supporters.

The second person on his list of 292 registered voters? Me. The fourth? Him. We're just waiting for his mom and brother to show up (they also live in our precinct.) Too funny.

I do have some FOs to share, as soon as I can convince my computer to let me upload pictures. I'll try not to be gone two weeks again!

15 comments:

Hey, so I think Obama can pull phone numbers by people who visit his website. I did, and low and behold, 2 days later I was getting phone calls, they must keep track of IP's or something weird! So what's up with TX? On CNN tonight they said something about primaries and caucuses for the dems? OH AND CALL YOUR SISTER BACK

Besides the yarn, I think feather & fan is an inelastic pattern. I have a pair of socks from Folk Socks that basically are F&F and I have to ease them over my heel & instep to get them on - they're out of some standard sock wool like Kroy.

It's not the Tencel, it's the pattern. That is (unfortunately) about the third sock I ever knit. I had to restart it THREE times, with ever-increasing numbers of stitches. I just couldn't believe the stitch count I went up to -- but it fits. That pattern has no give, you see. And I was knitting with Opal.

coming out of lurkishness to say: I'm also in Texas and also an Obama supporter! My boyfriend is a precinct captain, so he's doing the same thing: calling people in our precinct with that fancy schmancy online system. But he has 660 people to call :(

Here's some good news for the Democrats--my brother-in-law (who has always been a staunch Republican since he was first able to vote in the early 70s) is so disgusted by the party these days that he is planning to vote Democrat in the primary. Shock and amazement!! This country is going to turn around, I'm sure of it!!